Roger Ballen & Die Antwoord – Boarding House

Roger Ballen /Die Antwoord

The Photographers Gallery za in Cape Town had planned to host Roger Ballen’s Boarding House exhibition in 2010. This particular series had been on view at most of the major art centres across the world. What was of particular interest was the announcement of a major Roger Ballen exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town during 2010 as well. This was a first retrospective of his work at this art museum. Once the date for the museum exhibition had been confirmed it was also made clear by the museum director, Mr. Riason Naidoo, that no associated commercial exhibition would be permissible during the duration of the museum show. Thus, the Photographers Gallery za had to cancel its long-planned solo exhibition. It was a disaster. Because the 2011 schedule had been confirmed, there were no slots available to postpone the exhibition to a later date. A better strategy soon emerged: cancel the Boarding House solo exhibition completely and start planning a new exhibition. It was during this upheaval when Ballen mentioned, almost in passing, that he had done some work with the musical duo, Die Antwoord.